A digital antagonist crosses into reality to hunt the boy who nearly beat him, and a game's hero is summoned to stop him. Ra.One was Shah Rukh Khan's high-stakes attempt to prove Indian superheroes could be as cool as international ones.
Ra.One is a 2011 Hindi-language superhero film directed by Anubhav Sinha and produced by Gauri Khan under Red Chillies Entertainment. It stars Shah Rukh Khan in a dual role and Arjun Rampal as the titular antagonist, with Kareena Kapoor, Armaan Verma, Shahana Goswami, Tom Wu, Dalip Tahil and Satish Shah in supporting roles. The title is inspired by the Hindu epic character Ravana.
In the story, a video-game antagonist escapes into the real world to track down the player who almost defeated him. The son of the game's deceased creator brings the game's protagonist, G.One, into the real world to protect himself and his mother. Shah Rukh Khan plays both the game designer Shekhar Subramaniam and the heroic G.One, while Arjun Rampal plays Ra.One. Amitabh Bachchan provided a voiceover as the narrator.
Director Anubhav Sinha has said the idea originated in 2005 when he saw a television advertisement showing children remotely controlling a human. He approached Shah Rukh Khan, who liked the story and decided to produce it under Red Chillies Entertainment. Khan framed the film as the fulfilment of a childhood dream to be a superhero and to fly, and said he wanted to dedicate it to father-son relationships.
Principal photography began in March 2010 and took place in India and the United Kingdom, overseen by an international crew. Post-production involved 3-D conversion and visual effects that were recognised as a technological breakthrough among Indian films at the time. The film's title character was conceived, in Khan's words, as a modern, new-age technology version of the mythological Ravana, a mixture of ten different evil characters.
The film was extraordinarily expensive for its era. With a budget of 150 crore rupees inclusive of publicity, Ra.One was the most expensive Indian film at the time of release, surpassing the budget of Enthiran (2010). The producers spent a large marketing budget on a nine-month publicity campaign, brand tie-ups, merchandise, video games and viral marketing. The film also faced controversies involving plagiarism allegations, content leaks and copyright challenges.
Ra.One was released on 24 October 2011, the start of the five-day Diwali weekend, in 2D, 3D and dubbed Tamil and Telugu versions, with international premieres held between 24 and 26 October 2011. It had the largest international theatrical release for an Indian film up to that point. On release it earned praise for its visual effects, action sequences, direction, music and the performances of Khan and Rampal, but criticism for its script.
Commercially the film succeeded, earning more than 207 crore rupees worldwide against its budget, and ranking among the highest-grossing Indian superhero films. It became the second highest-grossing Hindi film of 2011 worldwide. It won a National Film Award, a Filmfare Award and four International Indian Film Academy Awards, largely for its technical achievements, and its critical reception has improved over the years.
Reported from the English Wikipedia entry on Ra.One.
